Various - SSR Records : In Retrospect

Killer compilation documenting the activity of Crammed Discs offshoot, SSR Records, a key outlet for emergent European and North American dance music from the early 90s. SSR might mean something or nothing to you, but i'm almost certain you'll be aware of at least a few of their prime names, a who's-who of electronic music from that era: Move D, Glenn Underground, Nu Era, Gemini et al. These nine tracks span a crucial period for electronic music, that first half of the 90s where acid, house, new beat, instrumental hip hop and broken beat were shifting and overlapping, forming what now seems like a golden age of ingenuity and expression. Dance music has moved on quite considerably from here, and arguably has become a lot more cynical with it, but these songs contain a kind of idealised, utopian energy that speaks to a different moment, one of possibility, community and shared understandings. Is that nostalgia speaking? Perhaps. But if rock is to be afforded one, then dance requires its canon, also, and if these nine tracks are evidence, then SSR clearly forms a part of that. And besides, we're even gifted a remix by the master of the game, Matthew Herbert, an inclusion on its own significant enough to justify the entrance fee. Guilt free, pre-millennial untension. Thankfully no-one here saw what dread was coming round the corner. Re-live that lost moment with them (the extensive liner notes will also help with that, too).